Wisconsin Right Now

The latest report on school choice in Wisconsin again shows choice schools outperform public schools in Milwaukee’s biggest cities and rural areas. The Apples to Apples report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty compares proficiency rates in math and English language arts in public schools, charter schools, and private schools as part of Wisconsin’s voucher program. The report says the idea is to put “schools on a level playing field to fairly assess education.” “Each iteration of Apples to Apples has found that private schools in the choice program and many forms of charter schools outperform their traditional public school peers on a level playing field, and this year is no different,” the report states. “But it is important to emphasize that we report all results, whether favorable to school choice or not.” Those results show some charter schools have occasionally underperformed compared to public schools. But as a whole, the Apples to Apples report shows ch

  A long-awaited report from U.S. Department of Justice released Thursday found widespread problems with law enforcement officers' response to the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. A gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. The Justice Department report provided the most thorough examination yet as to what happened inside the school. The 610-page report details the multiple failures in the response to the shooting, including the breakdowns in leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training that contributed to those failures. While some of the first officers on the scene initially tried to engage the gunman, they retreated after being met with gunfire. After that, the law enforcement responders began treating the incident as a barricaded subject scenario rather than as an active shooter situation. A tactical team finally went into the classroom to engage the gunman, Salvador Ramos, 77 minutes af

A new report shows the number of police officers shot on the job hit a new high in 2023. The National Fraternal Order of Police, a national police group with nearly 400,000 members, released the report, which showed 378 officers were shot in the line of duty in 2023, up 14% from the previous year, when 330 were shot. Of the 378 shot this year, 46 died from their injuries. A graphic from the report shows the significant increase in recent years as well as the breakdown by state. [caption id="attachment_159457" align="aligncenter" width="412"] A graphic from the National Fraternal Order of Police shows how many law enforcement officers were shot in the line of duty in 2023.  Graphic / National Fraternal Order of Police[/caption] The report goes on to say that there were 115 "ambush-style" attacks on officers in 2023, leading to 20 fatally shot officers. Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, bl

  A report released Monday by the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee says the influx of migrants across the country's southern border could cost taxpayers $451 billion. The fourth report released by the committee says that the tab includes housing, education, property damage done by migrants, law enforcement, and health care costs. A report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services showed that "emergency services for undocumented aliens" added up to $7 billion in fiscal 2021 and $5.4 billion in fiscal 2022, with migrants receiving at least $8 billion in improper Medicaid payouts (10% of the nation's total of $80 billion). Migrants are also putting a strain on the nation's criminal justice infrastructure, with the cost adding up to $8.95 billion in fiscal 2022. "It is unconscionable for Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden to force the American people to pick up the tab for the crisis their border policies created," Commit

A new report says Wisconsin shouldn’t have to pay $240 million if a new casino opens in Kenosha. The report from the Legislative Reference Bureau says the cost to the state is not as big under the latest gambling compact with the Forest County Potawatomi as it was under the last. “The financial risk to the state is not as great as during the 2013-15 deliberations. Since Gov. Walker rejected the Kenosha casino, the state agreed to a 2018 compact amendment with the Potawatomi that significantly reduces the state’s liability if a casino opens between 30 and 50 miles from the tribe’s Milwaukee casino,” the report states The old agreement with the tribe could have cost Wisconsin $243 million in compensation if a new casino opened within 50 miles of the tribe’s Milwaukee casino. “Most significantly, the 2018 amendment provides mitigation for revenue losses only on a going-forward basis,” the LRB analysis said. “In other words, unlike in the 2014 arbitrated amendment, the state would